YMCA of Metro Denver announces sale of historic downtown facility

The YMCA of Metro Denver announced that it's selling its downtown Denver facility to the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. This is the next step in a 24-year relationship between the two organizations. In 2001, the Y sold 216 housing units in the building to CCH, keeping 45,000 square feet in the basement and first two stories of the building for its fitness center. 

"We primarily run fitness activities out of the Downtown YMCA catering to the business community, if you will, and some residents in the neighborhood, and then we do run summer camp there," said Breezy Bolden, President & CEO, YMCA of Metro Denver. 

Acquiring the remaining 45,000 square feet of the building gives CCH more flexibility has they move forward with an already planned renovation of the building. 

"This is going to be an opportunity for us to do expansions to the current units in the building, but also to have additional community spaces for the residents," said Cathy Alderman, Chief Communications & Policy Officer for CCH. 

Right now, the building is set up in a boarding house style, in which the individual units do not have kitchens and bathrooms are communal on each floor. CCH has been looking for funding sources for the last few years in order to upgrade each unit with its own bathroom and kitchenette. 

"Now with this additional space, we might be able to make some of those units larger and a lot more attractive for those folks who need them," Alderman added. 

The extra square footage will likely add new units to the total number in the building, however, some of the space will be maintained as community spaces for residents to use. 

"It's so deeply in need of affordable housing right now especially those living on the lwest incomes and those trying to exit the cycle of homelessness," Alderman said. 

"Just given the housing affordability here in Colorado, the continued effort to meet the needs of the community especially the most vulnerable in downtown, it just makes a lot of sense for the Coalition to expand housing and social services in that downtown facility," Bolden added. 

The building is located on East 16th Avenue and has a historic designation. 

• The YMCA came to Denver in 1875 to improve the spiritual and mental condition of young working-class men. 
• In 1896, James Naismith, who invented the game of basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts, joined the Denver Y staff and introduced the game to Denver.   
• The Downtown Denver building was built around 1906, including one of the city's first indoor basketball courts.

"It is a historical building, and it's an attractive historical building in the downtown area. We want to preserve that, especially in some of the interior pieces like the basketball court. We hope to use that for our residents, potentially for the community," Alderman explained.

Operations at the Downtown Denver YMCA will end on Dec. 30, 2025. All current members will be offered transfers to any of the Y's other five Metro Denver locations. 

"We just see this as a great opportunity to meet a current pressing need and kind of move to a 'Y without walls' model in downtown, continuing all that we're already doing just not in that particular building," Bolden said. 

The Y will continue operating 32 after-school sites some in that neighborhood. Summer camp will continues at 17 different schools including some in that area. The Y's healthy living programming, like the Diabetes Prevention Program, can be accessed online. 

The sale is expected to close in January 2026 with renovations on the building starting in 2027.